Hurricane season begins in June and runs through the end of November. During this time, families across the state are impacted when hurricanes or strong storms cause widespread power outages and other damage.

Keep your electronic devices safe:
• Back up important data to DVDs or flash drives, and place it in a "to go" bag.
• Consider cloud storage of your data. Alternately, a company called IoSafe makes disaster-proofed storage devices.

In a hurricane evacuation, local counties plan to assist those with special needs.
Their evacuation and shelter during a hurricane is coordinated through the "functional and medical needs" registry. It was formerly called the "special needs" registry.

Children sense anxiety in adults. And, like adults, children experience the helplessness disaster-related stress can bring. Unlike adults, however, children have little experience to help them put things in perspective.

WHAT TO DO BEFOREHAND
• In warm weather, turn your air conditioning down. In cold weather, turn your heat up. During and after the storm, keep doors and windows closed - you can hold onto inside temperature for as long as 48 hours.

Get a weather radio.
A good one. It will alert you to impending emergencies even while you sleep.
Here's how they work: National Weather Service forecasters determine a severe weather event is occurring or about to occur.

In the event that all of Chatham County is evacuated on a mandatory basis, Interstate 16 will be converted to one-way (westbound) travel from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to U.S. 1 (about 77.5 miles).
Eastbound travel will be diverted to Ga.